Katniss Everdeen

We have another trailer, so you know what that means! It’s time for a Victor’s Village reaction post!

This one starts off on a bit of a sad note– You’ll notice that Them There Eyes is no longer with us. She’s stepped away from the Internet for a while to focus on some real life commitments, but we still love her to death and wish her all the best!

As for JJ and The Girl With The Pearl, We March Together with you through the glorious battlefield of fandom (See what we did there?!) And so, the reaction post goes on!

Be aware that this baby contains spoilers if you haven’t read the books! Also, there’s lots to it, so be sure to hit the “READ MORE” link if you’re viewing from the main page!

WHY ARE WE MARCHING?!

The Girl With The Pearl: Let’s start with this: The trailer has a name, which is not always something we’ve seen in the past. What do you think of We March Together?

Are we referring to this *cough* TOTALLY NATURAL marching scene?

JJ: Eh, it’s got that revolution vibe, which is good. And there is that scene of Katniss strutting down to “get” Snow. But… is does it add much to the actual trailer? Not sure. It feels like something they did to track views better online actually.

TGWTP: Being the picky bastard that I am, I couldn’t help but think about how they NEVER march together

JJ: Lol. But Paylor wants them too.

TGWTP: All these District are essentially using the same guerilla warfare tactics. No marching! Katniss sure never marched anywhere with anyone

JJ: Katniss doesn’t march with anyone, you’re right. It’s more of an afterthought of something that sounds good for trailer title.

TGWTP: It should be called We Want To March Together, then! Though it doesn’t have the same ring to it.

JJ: Marching together is for winners!

THE SNOW-DOWN

The greenhouse! The mansion in the distance! Hoooooly….

TGWTP: But I suppose the title doesn’t matter, because man… did this start with Snow’s final conversation with Katniss?!

JJ: Yes, I think they did. That’s one of the amazing thing about both the teaser and this trailer. They mush the timeline all around, yet it presents the story beautifully!

TGWTP: It’s not something non-readers would recognize, but for books fans… OOF! You can hear the raggedness of his voice, plus the image of Katniss approaching the greenhouse…

JJ: If you’ve got Donald Sutherland, use that’s man’s voice for all it’s worth. What a chilling open.

RECITING AND RECYCLING

TGWTP: And then we get Paylor, which is just so welcome. I kinda worry that characters like hers will be written off, but she’s prominent in a trailer!

Pay attention! Paylor knows what’s up!

JJ: I love that they are building her up. In the books, we don’t really see her rise because it happens away from Katniss, but I like how they’re really going to show her as a leader. Will make the ending make a lot more sense. And it was a great way to explain the plot of the movie quickly too.

TGWTP: Yes! We saw the tar before, now the people who haven’t read the books know what that’s about. And it establishes Paylor as a tactical leader.

JJ: Just in those few secs of her speech it solidifies her credibility as a leader. Good stuff

TGWTP: I did kinda laugh at the beginning of her speech though, because we get a quick look at Plutarch, Effie, and Haymitch– our only look at all three from this trailer– and it’s THE SAME CUT from the last trailer. We couldn’t find three different shots of those three?!

JJ: Yeah, bah, come on! There were a bunch of those reused shots.

TGWTP: Oh, I get that. We got plenty of recycling of scenes but that was so very obvious because it was a montage-y sequence.

THE FUTURE STARTS WITH REFERENCES OF BOOK LOVERS

JJ: But can we talk about the timing of when she talks about THE FUTURE STARTS TOMORROW.

TGWTP: YES. YES WE CAN. Because we see the future there! *flails*

The moment at which we all squealed!

JJ: That was just for us fans. Thanks to whoever cut that. You could think that was just a natural thing… but WE KNOW. A lot of the trailer has those type of fan-friendly moments. So thanks, guys!

TGWTP: Yes, somebody definitely said “Let’s throw THIS in here real quick for the big fans.”

TGWTP: And there were a couple moments where everything was combined to inflict maximum hurt, so let’s discuss those. Katniss talks about nothing good being safe while Snow is alive as she dances with Prim.

JJ: Yup, another moment taken from the teaser, but understandable since it’s the core of what she’s fighting for. And we need to make that end hurt more.

TGWTP: Gale talking about how Katniss needs to make her one shot count. URGH. That got to me.

JJ: Oooh, I didn’t pick up on that.

Tigris’ hair: Cockblocking Gale’s lines since last week

TGWTP: It’s very quick. She says she only has one shot. He says “Let’s make it count”

JJ: Oh yes, when he’s in Tigris’s shop. I was distracted by Tigris’s hair! But “making it count.” Ugh.

TGWTP: Exactly. Those are probably two different scenes (and yes, it’s Tigris!) but they’re blended for the best effect to reference Coin’s death later.

JJ: Messing with the timeline again! But it works. Then you have Peeta’s part.

TGWTP: I think it’s NO COINCIDENCE that they’re showing lizard mutts while Peeta is talking about Snow owning their deaths and how the deaths matter if Katniss defeats Snow.

JJ:“Our lives were never ours…” *tears* Finnick battling the lizards was a great shot.

The countdown is over! The trailer is here! IT IS OFFICIALLY TIME TO FLIP OUT!

It’s been two weeks since the first full Mockingjay Part 2 trailer was previewed at Comic-Con (that previous 2 minute preview was considered a “teaser”) and now, the rest of us are finally getting a glimpse of the action. And damn, is there action! We were pretty psyched with the last trailer, but Katniss and her crew have never been more intense than what we’re getting here!

It’s no longer about black and grey – no, in Mockingjay Part 2 we wear white… and RED.

Yes, the propo just debuted at Comic-Con and online, and it’s powerful stuff.
With drums and synchronized maneuvers, it’s militaristic and dystopian in tone with a superhero-esque twist from our Mockingjay. Our only quibble – the white of the jumpsuits reminded us of painters uniforms. A little distracting, but we got over it. After all, the white color scheme evokes the propaganda of the Capitol with District 13 taking ownership of it. No Snow, THIS IS OURS NOW. Really powerful. We’re ready to rise up.

To be clear, we don’t hate Snapchat. It’s great for sending out images and short videos of funny faces and landscapes and adorable pets and “No seriously, there’s someone walking down the street wearing THAT.”But we hate Snapchat as a promotional tool. It guarantees that everything will be short and choppy. That damn timer will be in everyscreencapforever until the studio deems fit to put it online elsewhere– and WHY DIDN’T THEY JUST DO THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE?!

Not to mention that the app is most popular among tweens and teens, so you’re really hacking up your full audience reach for a major franchise there. Sure, it makes sense for The Duff or even the Divergent series, which tend to run and advertise a little younger on the whole. But really, you’ve got one big YA franchise with a steady adult reach and ignoring that in favor of the latest teen trend is… ugh.

Thankfully, the propo ended up online very shortly after the fact:

Our first thought was “Holy lousy special effects, Batman!” But really, that’s what you’d expect from District 13. They are not, in fact, cinematic experts. Their technology and skills DO NOT EQUAL quality imagery. And then there’s the voice over, which got annoying but works in the sense that it reminds us of a commercial. This “Katniss Everdeen must be the symbol of our glorious revolution!” isn’t really all that different from the overly enthusiastic Arby’s guy (Ving Rhames, if you didn’t know!) trying to get us to buy a sandwich. There’s a product to sell here– whether it’s revolution or brown sugar bacon– and dammit, SOMEONE has got to talk it up!

This style of advertising has its pros and cons. We’re not madly in love with the in-world takes on the story, but we know that’s a big draw for other fervent fans.

Then, of course, the propo was followed by the poster to end all character posters. Motherfuckin’ Katniss Everdeen on the motherfuckin’ throne!

Gah, we love this image. LOVE IT. There is nothing at all wrong with adding some color to the Mockingjay suit. The red against the all white background! Katniss’ resting bitch face! It’s deliriously perfect.

Lionsgate is starting Comic-Con week with a bang with the release of 8 cool character posters for Mockingjay Part 2.

And YESSSSS we like it.

All the posters have the tag UNITE – THE REVOLUTION IS ABOUT ALL OF US, which ties in to the Three Finger Salute billboards from a few weeks ago. And everyone is branded with the sign of the Mockingjay, in red, mimicking warpaint. But everyone has a unique word on the left side to set things apart.

Katniss is PANEM UNITE which makes sense. Peeta is SONS cause why not? (And what’s with the light eyes? Does hijacking make them finally… blue? Kidding. But not)

Gale is all about the BROTHERS, though we wish we could’ve seen some of his actual brothers in the movie. And Johanna appropriately brings up the rebels. We can’t tell if she’s really sad here, or just really fucking annoyed to be photographed for these things. Probably both.

Newly married Finnick represents the husbands (hey the world knows because of the teaser trailer). And Prim gives us sisterhood feels. And the blood-red color on both these faces is even more chilling when you know the ending.

Finally we have Cressida and Boggs representing the activists and the soldiers.

The black and red of these posters are VERY INTERESTING. They of course set the mood very well, but we also wonder if they fit nicely with a red Mockingjay-suited Katniss propo to come?

One additional thing that we liked, and may have just happened because it worked out like that and no other reason, but it’s still remarkable. Katniss’s poster is not DAUGHTERS UNITE, it’s PANEM UNITE. One of the very few redeeming qualities of Panem is that women have authority in this world as well, and it’s no big deal. It’s just how things are. This will be further enforced in the last saga with Commanders Paylor and Lyme. And Panem’s symbolic leader, the Mockingjay, while a daughter, represents the entire country, so they correctly chose to emphasize that first.

We’re a little surprised too. We weren’t really expecting to see Katniss marching in the Capitol on her way to execute… Snow in the Mockingjay Part 2 teaser trailer. We were expecting a little more focus on the beginning of the film. It’s not that we didn’t LOVE seeing that scene, or other scenes that we know are later in the film. The execution scene with Katniss aiming her arrow is a great call back to the other films so it certainly stays with you. But to have them in the teaser trailer, the first glimpse of the film, is unexpected.

Then EW released a “new” still yesterday. Well, we don’t consider it all that new, because it’s a scene from the teaser where Effie is helping Katniss prepare her look for Snow’s execution. But there it is again – drawing focus on a scene from late in the film.

What’s interesting about the choices to reveal things that happen from the very end of the film is that they don’t necessarily reveal too much of the actual plot to non-book readers. Sure, you see Katniss leading people in the Capitol. But come on, even casual movie watchers know this is where the story is heading anyway. These moments have a strong visual impact, and can help sell the movie. Book readers know what happens anyway, and the non-book readers won’t understand all the context enough to be truly spoiled.

Like in the scene from the still above. Katniss and Effie are clearly in the Capitol from the surroundings and Effie’s newly regained colorful outfit. Us book readers can distinguish other small things that reveal the timeline – the uneven end of Katniss’s braid indicating singing from fire bombs – but a casual viewer isn’t going to notice that. The casual viewer probably isn’t thinking about the timeline at all. They’re just seeing a return to Effie preparing Katniss for her latest big big big day in the revolution.

So yes, it’s surprising that they’ve already revealed some shots from the end of the movie, but we think it helps build continuity as we march toward this EPIC CONCLUSION.

If they showed Prim with parachutes in the distance, that’s another story.

You’ve probably noticed that there’s been lots of goodness from The Hunger Games Exhibition all around the web, including over on our Instagram page. Now, we’re sharing all the photos from our Hunger Games Exhibition with you!

If you like these glimpses, stay tuned for a detailed report on the super fun exhibition!

Kait with Adam from HG Fireside Chat and Brittany from Down With The Capitol

We’ve already got a “teaser” for Mockingjay Part 2, which was trailer length but WE’RE NOT COMPLAINING. Now it’s time to prepare for the theatrical trailer!

See, we know it’s out there! Some lucky folks in Spain got to see it today as part of Cine Europe, which is an event for studio types and film distributors that’s similar to CinemaCon. There isn’t too much description out there yet, but there was ONE gem in the reports:

J-Law was like “I’ll take it in RED, plzkthx.” (No, not really.)

Come November, Katniss will be rocking a red Mockingjay suit!

You may be thinking back to April right now. Because in April, Funny Or Die released a gif of Jennifer Lawrence in a red Mockingjay suit talking into a banana as if it were a cell phone. We assumed nothing of the suit, only that it was a discolored imitation of the suit from the films. Hell, it’s Funny or Die! They clearly weren’t being serious!

Buuuuuuut then Lionsgate started asking that all the image be taken down pronto. From all the places. At the time, we just assumed this was Lionsgate getting antsy over their ownership of all things even kinda sorta mentioning the series and shrugged it off as silly. LO AND BEHOLD, THERE WAS A SECRET IN HERE!

Lionsgate nixed the images, so we can’t post them here, but the Internet is a vast entity where nothing ever disappears, especially if you check tumblr. Just sayin’!

Now to the big question — WHY ADD A RED MOCKINGJAY SUIT?

Artistic flair, we suppose! To give the audience something they didn’t expect and make Katniss stand out. We would assume it was used for was the execution scene if we didn’t already see that in the teaser. Maybe it’s another propo outfit designed to make her stand out more on screen. In which case, goal achieved!

To be clear, we give zero fucks about the additional of this suit. It’s actually pretty cool and not everything is always going to be straight off the page. We’ve been blessed with pretty minimal changes throughout the series and the color of an outfit in now way changes the plot. So yeesh, naysayers, calm yourselves before you pop a vein or something, ‘kay?

It’s More Of A Crimson, Anyway. The Crimsonjay!The Girl With The Pearl

We’ve got a Mcokingjay Part 2 trailer and lots of new feels along with it!

To celebrate our first glimpse at the franchise finale, we’re presenting you with another zany reaction post! We’ve got a lot to say about the new trailer, so let the gushing begin!

Oh, and this sucker is pretty long, so don’t forget to click READ MORE the see the whole thing.

THE FEELING IS BACK!

THE GIRL WITH THE PEARL: So how does this trailer stack up against the mountain of other THG trailers we’ve seen?

JJ: It’s right at the top for me. I love the teaser and theatrical trailers for CF, and this one made me feel that same level of astonishment/amazement.

TGWTP: I’m in the same boat. The second CF trailer was my favorite up until now, but I think this one actually beats it!

JJ: That feeling of “THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN I EVEN DREAMED. PRAISE FRANCIS LAWRENCE” type of feeling. I didn’t quite get it with the MJ1 trailers. But now it’s back, baby!

THEM THERE EYES: Not joking, I’ve had to go back and watch them all… I tend to forget.

TGWTP: Nina and Francis got harassed about wanting an amazing trailer a lot on Twitter. WE DO NOT APPROVE OF THIS. Buuuut they certainly delivered!

TTE: I wonder if they have the same team on the trailers?

JJ: It varies. I believe this one was by Trailer Park. But they’ve had different companies work on them.

TGWTP: I have no idea. The teams behind trailers obviously need way more credit than they get.

JJ: But it was just overall well done. The structure, the shots they chose, it gave us hints at a lot of scenes throughout the movie… but not TOO much.

TTE: Yes, even the music they choose to buy, and sample from the scores are perfectly placed.

WEDDING FEELS HIDDEN BEHIND SOME SERIOUS HAIR

TGWTP: How many feels did you have when you realized it began with the wedding scene?

JJ: THAT was a great choice.

TGWTP: I made an uncomfortable gaspy-sob sound that was probably not meant to come out of a human.

JJ: First, it just LOOKED beautiful, but then you realize what it actually is, and as a fan, you’re hooked in completely from the start. And Katniss’s voiceover for that moment is so perfect. Well played.

TTE: Well, the first time I viewed it I was in a hot car, watching it on my cell phone… but I had the sound up on my car’s stereo… so that made it kind of dramatic in probably not the way they wanted it to be… for me at least.

TGWTP: I must admit though… I didn’t notice Johanna in that scene until about the fifth time I watched it. Too distracted by Effie’s Edward Scissorhands hair

JJ: I didn’t notice her either. But that doesn’t take points away for me. There will be moments with Johanna later, I’m sure.

TTE: I didn’t see her! *runs off to pause video like crazy person*

TGWTP: How could you behind Effie’s flair, really? Though man… Jena is handling that bald cap like a champ in the scene when you DO notice her

TTE: Oh, there she is… ten seconds in, over Effie’s shoulder.

TGWTP: And did you guys notice that when we finally see Katniss talked to Coin, she’s still got the bruises on her throat?! *weeps* Then you realize that her voice sounds REALLY ROUGH.

JJ: Yes, the bruises are a great detail. And her voice. Poor dear.

TTE: I was about to say “Her voice sounds really trashed.”

TGWTP: Obviously, we know the story picks up immediately after Peeta’s attack. But knowing and seeing are way different

JJ:“Snow has to pay for what he’s done…” Cue Lionsgate logo lol

TGWTP: BAM!

EFF YOU, SPEECHES!

TGWTP: I also find it funny that Katniss says “I can’t make another speech about it…” and then is launches into her District 2 speech shortly thereafter lol

JJ: “Can’t” versus “God help me I DON’T WANT TO”

TTE: I think that’s on purpose! she’s very speech-y.

JJ: But Katniss, you do some pretty good speeches. Impromptu is hard to do after all.

TGWTP: Exactly. Poor girl is just like “NO MORE FUCKING SPEECHES! LET ME TAKE OUT MY RAGE ON THE BATTLEFIELD.”

Tomorrow is a long-awaited day. We waited, we implored, we got indignant, and then waited some more and tomorrow a Mockingjay Part 2 trailer will be released (even if Lionsgate won’t flat out admit it, Nina Jacobson will).

The big debate going on right now is whether this trailer will be an in-universe propo without film footage, or a more traditional teaser trailer that sets the tone for the film with actual film footage.

Our guess it that it’s going to be the latter. Yes, the poster released last week tied back to the President Snow propaganda videos, but last week we also got STILLS released on the actors’ Facebook pages (YAY). When stills are released prior to a trailer, they often are from scenes IN THE TRAILER, and we think that will happen this time. Or that’s what we’re hoping!

Still 1 was released on the Jennifer Lawrence Facebook page and shows Katniss, Gale, Messalla, and Finnick in the field… somewhere. Presumably District 2. We were struck by how particularly young and innocent Katniss looks in this picture, while in her battle gear. She’s also in the standard D13 gear not the Mockingjay suit.

Still 2 was released on Josh Hutcherson’s Facebook page and shows Peeta, looking good. As in not hijacked which is of course fabulous news but also good as in really really attractive. Wow, Peeta.

Looking carefully at the darkened background it appears to be a richly decorated space. We’re thinking it’s either Tigris’s shop or a Capitol apartment.

Still 3 was released on Friday via Liam Hemsworth’s Facebook and is Gale, looking intense with his crossbow in another darkened space. Once we looked beyond the Hemsworth hotness, we noticed a pipe and lots of wet, drippy concrete, which indicates the scenes of them in the Capitol sewers.

If our guess that the stills tie in to the teaser is correct, this means we’re going to see (very short) parts of all three of those scenes. There will likely be scenes with other characters like Snow or Coin as well (gotta remind people of the conflict). And according to a message received by some in the entertainment media, the “Mockingjay will be heard.”